Battlefield anniversary walks are a normal on the “true” anniversaries on July 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. However, there are weekend walks around the battlefield that show troop movements. Some of these hikes are approximately less than two hours. They usually talk and walk about Pickett’s Charge or around Little Round Top. However, some walks from the past lasted from six to eight hours and were free or a few dollars. Now, those same walks are up to a hundred dollars. Glad I was able to experience the hikes without the financial problems of gathering the cash. Just remember: You can charge it.
Some of these walks took you on private lands that was able to gain access from the Gettysburg Visitor Center. In this walk above, we were able to gain access to the least visited place on the battlefield: Neill’s Avenue. The view of the avenue is seen below. The only way to possibly view this avenue is to ask the Visitor Center for access.
The following Spring, National Battlefield guides Tim Smith and Gary Alleman gave another battlefield walk through Devil’s Den, Little Round Top, Big Round Top, and Cemetery Ridge. This is them showing us older photographs of the Den in the early 1900s.
Every few years, the Park Service wants to get invasive plants and weeds out of the park. The only way they can do this safely is to have a prescribed burn. Firefighters and park service officials have to wait for the right weather, drier humidity and calm winds to do this important act for the landscape. This was a prescribe burn in April 2017. Minus the fire that is burning, it shows the smoke across the fields. You can argue that it might look like this in July 1863 with the firing of the cannons across the battlefield.
